Date: Sun, 7 Apr 1996 17:10:18 -0700 (MST) From: Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org> To: jkh@time.cdrom.com (Jordan K. Hubbard) Cc: terry@lambert.org, hsu@freefall.freebsd.org, gpalmer@freefall.freebsd.org, hackers@freefall.freebsd.org Subject: Re: Netscape install of FreeBSD Message-ID: <199604080010.RAA01007@phaeton.artisoft.com> In-Reply-To: <5086.828913298@time.cdrom.com> from "Jordan K. Hubbard" at Apr 7, 96 02:41:38 pm
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
> > > I meant the install install, that is, click a button from Netscape > > > running in Windows or Linux and it goes off and partitions your drive, > > > downloads FreeBSD, installs it, sets up the boot manager, asks you some > > > questions and writes the appropriate files onto the newly created BSD ufs, > > > then reboots. > > > > > > This is an example of network software distribution which everyone seems > > > to want to do with the web. > > > > This is hard. > > > > It's hard because thee is no standard extension for UNIX executables, > > I don't think this is so much an issue. > > You'll recall awhile back that I was calling for a general-purpose > library that would provide an "embedable HTTP server" for an > application, allowing you to specify your "HTML" in some higher-level > syntax that provided for genuine callbacks and such without having to > deal with any of the thoroughly disgusting form and entry field hacks. > You'd just say which entities you wanted in each document or > interaction screen and the library would interact with the HTTP port > like any other server, processing incoming requests and turning them > into standardised callbacks. Uh... correct me if I'm wrong, but an install will have to use someone else's browser code because our isn't installed yet. 8-) 8-). > The reason I stopped dreaming about this and decided to punt the whole > idea was that I disliked the idea of using only the standard HTML > objects (text, entry fields, buttons, and so on) for doing my > interfaces. How would I display the current disk layout, for example? > As rows of "X"'s or something? Bleah! ASCII art is your department, > not mine.. :-) > > I would far prefer to generate gifs on the fly that represented pie > charts, colored bar graphs (representing the sizes of your various > partitions and free space) and such, but the idea of adding a > generalized rendering API to this whole thing finally brought me up > short with the realization that it was a whole 'nother engineering > project unto itself and I should probably just make the existing tools > work a little nicer before even contemplating such a massive project. CGI would let you do this to a locally connect "install server", but you'd still have to boot the local disk. It's all very annyoing. The Microsoft stuff has "click here to upgrade your browser" type capabilities, which is what you want. The problem is that for OS installs, it's not quire there enough to be able to use, and it's certianly not "cross-browser" enough to deal with it. Imagine Mr. Mac weenie trying to click the FreBSD "install now" button. 8-(. Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers.
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?199604080010.RAA01007>